The current status of your home bar? A dusty compartment in the kitchen cupboard, filled with 2 or 3 unpopped bottles of unpopular spirits that were left over from the last party and a half-full, stuck-up bottle of eggnog from your grandma? Stop it!
There comes a time in the life of a young adult when a well-stocked home bar should be provided so that guests no longer have to bring their own drinks and spontaneous visitors don't have to be left high and dry. If the “Hausbar” project has not yet been on your to-do list, then it is hereby officially included.
We're not saying that you have to spend thousands of euros to build a home bar that could be photographed for a glossy interior design magazine. However, by following a few simple rules, you can set up a good basic equipment to be able to offer your guests at least a selection of classic drinks for every taste.
spirits
When choosing spirits, the rule “quality over quantity” definitely applies! With these 11 spirits you can mix countless classic cocktails and modern drinks. If the quality is good, they can also be served plain.
Red wormwood
White wormwood
Bitter aperitif
Gin *
Vodka**
White rum (stored for 3 years)
Brown rum (stored for at least 7 years)
tequila
Whiskey***
cognac
Triple Sec
* e.g. THE DUKE Munich Dry Gin
**e.g. LION's Handcrafted Vodka
***The field of whiskeys is truly limitless, but in order to be able to mix classics such as “Old Fashioned”, a bourbon is an advantage.
Fillers and trimmings
Cocktails and long drinks usually contain not only spirits, but also non-alcoholic ingredients such as fruit juice, syrup, cream, tonic water or soda water and are often garnished with pieces of fruit or vegetables and herbs ice is needed for shaking and stirring the drinks as well as for filling the cocktail glasses . You should also have these ingredients on hand:
Tonic Water
Bitter Lemon
Ginger Ale/ Ginger Beer
Soda Wasser
Grenadine (pomegranate syrup)
Angostura Bitters
cream
egg
Tomato juice
Lime juice
Citrus fruits (orange, lime, lemon)
Vegetables (cucumber, celery)
Herbs (thyme, rosemary, basil, mint)
Barstuff
If all the spirits and other ingredients for various drinks are available, the right bar tools are needed in order to be able to implement cocktail recipes well. The following are the most important, but a sharp fruit knife, a small cutting board, a citrus juicer, an ice cream container, an ice cream scoop or tongs, and tweezers for garnish are helpful.
Bar Spoon: “Stirred, not shaken” - the long style bar spoon is one of the most important bar tools. Thanks to the spiral-shaped style, cocktails with ice cubes can be stirred particularly quickly and can therefore cool down optimally.
Shaker: If cocktails contain fruit juice, cream or eggs, a shaker is used for preparation. The ingredients can be mixed together well and cooled at the same time by adding ice.
Bar measure:A bar measure is used to measure spirits and other liquid ingredients. This usually has two different sides (usually 3 and 5 cl, but more rarely also 2 and 4 cl), with the larger side also called a jigger and the smaller side
Pestle: This bar tool can be used to crush and crush fruits, herbs or spices in a vessel (e.g. mortar or shaker) to release the desired aromatics.
Bar strainer: Ingredients such as fruits or herbs are supposed to release flavors into the mixed cocktail, but no one wants the residue in the glass and the ice from the shaker is not used for the cocktail glass. In order to filter residues and ice cubes out of the drink, a strainer is required.
Thanks to the metal spiral, the Hawthorne Strainer dapts flexibly to the opening of the shaker used. After shaking, the strainer is placed on the opening of the shaker in order to slowly “strain” the drink into a pre-chilled glass or one filled with ice.
The Julep Strainer is the older and simpler version: It is a large, curved spoon with holes that is held with the curved side down in the shaker to strain the cocktail.
Zester: Rarely found in a home bar, but an essential bar accessory in a cocktail bar, is the zester. To garnish drinks, spirals of the outer peel of citrus fruits, called “zests,” are often used. Zest as a garnish not only makes drinks look good, but also enhances the citrus note. When choosing citrus fruits, pay attention to organic quality!
glasses
If you don't want to buy new glasses, the ones you already have at home will usually do the trick. Of course, it is more stylish if drinks are served in the glasses intended for this purpose. You wouldn't offer your guests beer in a wine glass. Those of you who are thinking to yourself, “Oh, that happens sometimes,” might want to think again at this point. Glasses for red and white wine as well as champagne belong in every household. A well-stocked home bar should also have martini glasses, Tumbler, Longdrinkgläser und Krüge für Munich Mule (Rezept Munich Mule) bzw. Moscow Mule bereithalten.
Drinks
The house bar is there? Then you can start now! here you will find tried and tested and exciting new gin and vodka drinks to remix. Have fun and cheers!
